Androgyny
by Solo Ensemble
Summary: Jason witnesses a disturbing conversation between Elizabeth and a friend from her past, and realizes that Sonny Corinthos's life may be at stake if either woman is to be trusted.


**Note – This is most likely a one-shot, about 99.99, but there's still a 0.01 chance that it will be continued. Maybe. Ish.**

All you need to know here is that Jason and Elizabeth were starting to reconnect and contemplating getting romantic again when Sonny got Sam pregnant and pressured Jason to pretend the kid was his. Jason couldn't tell Elizabeth the secret because Sonny insisted and Elizabeth broke things off with him for good. Sam lost the baby and is living with Jason, and they've been getting romantic. As far as history goes: Elizabeth was never raped and she left Port Charles for a little while after Jason left the first time, but came back in time for Lucky to resurface. Jason and Elizabeth were reconnecting when he came back but then Sonny made him guard Courtney and Elizabeth walked away because Jason was always out doing every little thing Sonny wanted and didn't have any time for her. The timeline and ages in this are sketchy, so just go with it, if you can. I had originally planned to do this with Courtney and Jason instead, but I like it this way better.

**Androgyny**

"Mike? Two orders of chili, biscuits, and brownies."

Mike nodded at Jason and began getting the order ready. "You and Sam going to stay in tonight?"

"Yeah."

"Probably a good idea," he replied. "The temperature is set to drop into the negative digits in an hour or two, and that's dangerous. There's a frigid temperature advisory and everything; they're warning everyone to stay inside where it's warm."

"You gonna be able to get home okay?" Jason asked. "I can have one of our men give you a ride…"

Mike shook his head and bagged the food. "Nah. Don't worry about it. I'm staying in one of the empty rooms upstairs tonight. I keep a toothbrush and a few changes of clothes and some other things here for an emergency, so I'll be fine."

"Okay."

"Here you are." He handed the bag to Jason. "I'll put that on your tab. Say hi to Sam for me."

"I will."

Jason took the food, tucked it under his arm, and headed out the back entrance. He wanted to walk past Pier 52 on his way back to Harborview Towers. He and Sonny had cancelled the shipments tonight due to the cold; they didn't want their workers out on the river loading and unloading on a night like this. Jason just wanted to be absolutely sure that none of his men were waiting there before he went home to Sam.

Kelly's was really quite convenient that way. It was just far away from the docks to be safe, but only a single alleyway separated it from the harbor. He lost count of how many times he'd used the shortcut to check on business before stepping in for a hot cup of coffee.

He hurried down the alley, wanting to do a quick check and get out of there as soon as possible. Mike was right: it was freezing. No one should be out on a night like this.

The concrete turned into planks and Jason headed for the landing that would lead him to the stairs down onto the piers when he saw her.

Elizabeth Webber, dressed in jeans and a short down jacket, was standing on the pier as if she was waiting for someone. It had been a long time since he'd seen her: she had purposely made herself scarce after things went downhill between them. Once the rest of the town found out that Jason had gotten Sam pregnant, according to their lie, Elizabeth took a few weeks off and left altogether, not wanting to be the subject of their pitying stares and well-meaning I-Told-You-So's.

She never sought him out after the night he regretfully told her that he was the father of Sam's child. It was the last thing he wanted to do, and one of the hardest things he'd ever done. Things were finally good between them again. They were friends again, and she actually smiled and laughed when she was with him, and she looked up at him the same way she had when she was eighteen and he was the closest thing to a best friend she had.

It hurt like hell to push her away, but he had to do it. Sonny was family. Carly and Michael and Morgan, they all depended on him to keep their world together, and they were finally all ready to be a family again. And of course, that left Sam and Sonny's unborn child on the outside, and that wasn't right. They had to keep their kids and loved ones close, even if that meant that he would raise his best friend's child as his own.

He was lucky that he fell in love with Sam, he supposed. It made the whole thing much easier to deal with, much easier to justify. It made the lie much easier to believe.

And he realized now that it was a good thing that Elizabeth had made herself scarce, because just seeing her made him want to run to her and undo everything he and Sonny worked so hard to construct and just tell her the truth, that he wasn't the son of a bitch she thought he was and he didn't impregnate a woman on the side while he was trying to make things work with her.

She was standing with her back to him, her hair blowing in the freezing wind, and his first urge was to tell her that she shouldn't be on the docks alone at night. Not only because they were dangerous, but because it was fucking cold.

His foot hit the landing and he was about to come down the stairs when her phone buzzed and she held it to her ear. "Yeah. I'm here, but you're not. Okay. Hurry, I don't want us to be seen."

Jason stopped and, thinking better of it, retreated into the shadows. This was interesting. And suspicious. And since he was the last person Elizabeth would probably tell if she was in any sort of trouble, his best option was to wait in the shadows and find out what was going on.

He didn't even see or hear the lanky blonde that approached Elizabeth until she was practically next to her. The woman moved with grace, agility, and strength and showed off the lean body of a dancer. She was dressed head to toe in black, and Jason spotted a Glock tucked against her side. And worse, Elizabeth seemed to know her.

His ex-girlfriend flung her arms around the woman's neck, hugging her tightly. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"Me, too," she replied, hugging her just as fiercely. "I thought we lost all contact with you for good when you left."

Jason's brows furrowed. Left where? Colorado? Port Charles? But the girl didn't seem like a town native, so he waited and listened.

"What are you doing here? Are you on assignment?"

"Better," he heard the blonde chirp. "I'm on vacation."

Elizabeth appeared confused. "…But, we never got vacations."

"We do now."

"Huh. How about that? So…what are you doing _here_? Port Charles isn't a top tourist location or anything."

"I'm just passing through here," she said. "I actually came to see you. Once we all found out where you were living and what you were doing, we hoped we'd be able to come pay you a visit someday. Turns out, I'm the first."

Elizabeth took a step back and stared at her friend. "Why did you come see me? What do you need?"

"I have some information that I wanted to pass along with you."

"About what?"

"Not what, who."

"About who?"

"Well, I really shouldn't be telling you any of this because it's none of the organization's business, and we're not involved in any way, but I was talking to a night runner from another one of the underworld crowds and he told me this, and I thought you should know."

The woman took a deep breath. "We all know that you're dating Jason Morgan again."

Jason flinched as Elizabeth did the same. Who knew that she was dating him? Why did that matter? Was Elizabeth being watched?

She was shaking her head. "I'm not seeing him anymore. And I never will again."

Surprisingly, the blonde let out a cluck of sympathy. "You're not? But you've known him forever. He was all you talked about the last time you saw any of us."

"That was a long time ago."

"What happened?"

He watched as she sighed heavily. "We were starting to see each other and he impregnated the town whore and moved her on into his place."

"At Harborview Towers."

"Yeah."

"And what about you?"

"He told me that she was having his kid and that they were going to live together and get married and raise it, so I left."

A long silence stretched between the two women until the blonde grabbed her weapon from her side. "He's still on the fifteenth floor, right?"

"No, you're not going to kill him," Elizabeth sighed, grabbing her friend's arm before she could walk away. "Don't you remember? No unsanctioned killings of prominent marks. Or does that rule not stand anymore?"

"It stands," she grumbled. "But if he wakes up one morning and finds that someone lopped his twig and berries off, don't blame me."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes as Jason struggled to process what he was hearing. "You said you had information for me."

"Right, but I'm not so sure I should give it to you now. In fact, just forget it. I'm heading to Key West – I'll send you a postcard."

"Val." Elizabeth grabbed the blonde's elbow and hauled her back. "Not so fast. Tell me or else."

"Or else, what? You're pulling rank on me?"

"I was the third highest ranked in the whole organization, so, yeah, I'm pulling rank on you, newbie."

Her friend snorted. "But you don't work with the organization anymore, remember?"

"Val…"

"Fine." The blonde shifted her weight and widened her stance, finally ready to impart whatever it was that caused all this trouble. "But knowing you and how damn compassionate you can be, you'll probably be stupid and act on this."

"If I was stupid and acted rashly whenever I was told something like this, it would have gotten me killed a long time ago. But here I am, so just say it."

"I have information that indicates that someone is going to kill Sonny Corinthos." She cleared her throat and tucked a wisp of hair back behind her ear. "You know, Asshat Morgan's boss."

Jason balked as Elizabeth calmly pondered this. "Anything more than that?"

"Just that someone is shopping around for a hitter. Someone quick, someone efficient, someone highly skilled in making things look accidental. They're shopping it around to the various organizations. Cost is not an issue."

"Was our organization approached?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because whoever the buyer is, he doesn't want a woman on the job."

Elizabeth snorted. "So many years later, and people are still afraid to hand these jobs out to us girls."

"I only got the information I did because I'm a girl and not in the running," Valerie reminded her. "It didn't mean anything to me, but I thought it might mean something to you."

"Why did you really come here to tell me this, Val?"

"Because I thought you were dating Jason and would want to save his partner."

"The real reason."

"…I thought that bringing you in on this job would remind you of all the things we used to do in the good old days, together with the rest of the organization, and that, I don't know, you'd consider coming back for a little while."

Elizabeth sighed and turned her face, looking out at the water. "Oh, Val."

"But why not? You said yourself that you broke things off with Jason, meaning that there's no romantic involvement. You don't have any family left in Port Charles, you're not really doing much right now. Why not come back? Why not leave all this behind and join the organization again?"

"That was all a long time ago, Val. I'm not that person anymore."

"Bull shit! You were one of the best we had. That kind of skill and insight doesn't just vanish, no matter how much you might want it to."

"Val, don't push me on this."

Jason watched as the woman planted her hands on her hips and asked the question he wanted answered, too.

"What are you going to do with this information about Sonny?"

"I don't know."

"You gonna protect him? Or let him go down?"

"I don't know."

A long moment passed, and finally the blonde shrugged. "Well, it's your call. It's not like I care one way or another. It was good seeing you again, Elizabeth."

His ex-girlfriend reached out and gave the blonde a hug. "You, too, Val. Seeing you made me think…well, it just hit me how much I really missed you and all the other girls all these years."

"We miss you, too. But we were all glad you got out if that was what you needed to do."

"I think it was," she admitted. "At least, at that point in my life."

"I have to go."

"Do you have a way for me to keep in touch with you?"

Valerie shook her head. "I'll contact you if something comes up. And remember, we're always around. Someone's always watching you – someone always has your back."

Elizabeth smiled and nodded. "I know. Stay safe, Val."

"You, too."

She was gone in a flash, and Jason was left staring at Elizabeth as she once again turned out and faced the frozen waves. As quietly as he could, he turned around and retraced his steps back to Kelly's. Mike looked up when he entered again, confused, but Jason breezed right past him and headed out the front door. He had to get back to Harborview right now and tell Sonny.


End file.
